Page 1 of The Unseelie Wish
CHAPTER ONE
The game was easy.
A human woman, delectable and desperate—his favorite prey. A simple deal, a simple bargain. His rings in exchange for “Chinese Food” which barely even counted as the prelude to what he considered the true performance.
A wish granted in exchange for a soul.
All she had to do was want something. What kind of human didn’t want something? That was all humans did—need and want and take and steal. So, when the beautiful young thing had insisted that she wanted nothing at all, the board was set.
Prove her wrong, and he would win.
The game was easy.
It had been easy when it started.
But that was the best kind of game, wasn’t it? The kind whose rules changed as the players moved their pieces. Now, she had gone and thrown the board.
Who does that?
Izael dug his nails into his palms as he paced across the checkerboard tile of his home. Alex had thrown the board, and now he needed to come up with a plan.
In a desperate ploy to escape the game she had agreed to play…she had gone and stood in the sunlight where he could not follow. She was with the Seelie.
With every second that ticked by as the sun shone, it meant Alex was likely to inch closer to death—if she had not already been beheaded that was. Picking up the glass orb that bound her to him in magic, he ordered it to show him where she was.
He hadn’t wanted to see it at first.
But now he was desperate.
The image, however, was cloudy. It swirled with a haze that made it impossible to see anything at all! Roaring, he dismissed it before he threw it against a wall and shattered it. Damnable Seelie magic! It must not be able to pierce the sunlight.
Damn, damn, damn!
Alex was in deep trouble. She was still wearing the glamor of an Unseelie—the Seelie would attempt to kill her on sight. Threading his hands into his hair, he yanked, trying to use the sting in his scalp to straighten out his thoughts. He had no time to bargain with Valroy.
No, Izael had to save her. Had to rescue her. Had to stop the Seelie before they made a terrible mistake and killed her. And it meant doing the unthinkable.
It meant asking for help.
From the half-breed.
Heading over to a large free-standing mirror that he kept underneath a black cloth, he gripped the fabric in his hands and yanked it free, revealing the smoky, silvered glass. Glowering at his own rippling reflection, he took a step away from the surface and braced himself for the inevitable gloating.
“Robin Goodfellow. I summon you.”
Nothing happened.
Snarling, he fought the urge to smash it with his fist. “Robin Goodfellow, you rancid turd, I?—”
“Yeah, yeah, what do you want?”
Izael jolted. Puck had appeared behind him instead of using the mirror as any other normal fae should have done. Whatever. Now wasn’t the time. He turned toward the impish creature and clenched his fists at his sides. “Alex ran off. You need to find her and bring her back to me.”
“She—” Puck cackled in laughter. “Holy shit, you lost her? After you gave her all that power? What the fuck, man.” He blew a chunk of his silver hair out of his eyes. “This sounds like a ‘you’ problem. Why should I care?”
“I did not lose her! She ran and used her magic to disappear before I could catch her!” He grabbed Puck by the front of the shirt and dragged him closer. “She is in the daylight. You will go and fetch her and bring her back before the Seelie hurt her.”
“What did you tell her that spooked her?” He arched an eyebrow, unaffected by Izael’s threats. “Let me guess—you got impatient and tried to steal her soul. Or make her wish the treaty away.”